NEWS
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
HerMIsTOnHeraLd.COM • A7
Port of Morrow appeals $1.3M fine from DEQ
Port seeks to reduce
penalty for spreading
wastewater
By GEORGE PLAVEN
eO Media Group
The Port of Morrow is
appealing $1.3 million in
fines levied by state envi-
ronmental regulators for
excessively
spreading
nitrogen-rich wastewater as
fertilizer on area farmland.
The port is seeking to
reduce its penalty, and has
requested a contested case
hearing with the Oregon
Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
Located
along
the
Columbia River in north-
east Oregon, the Port
of
Morrow’s
Board-
man Industrial Park is a
regional food processing
powerhouse, with compa-
nies producing everything
from frozen french fries to
cheddar cheese.
Under a DEQ permit, the
port can recycle wastewater
from the facilities by spray-
ing it on farmland growing
potatoes, wheat, alfalfa and
other crops.
However, the amount
of wastewater applied can-
not exceed a certain thresh-
old to prevent groundwater
contamination.
DEQ alleges the port
violated its permit more
than 1,000 times from 2018
to 2021, exceeding the
nitrogen limit and threaten-
ing public health and safety.
In its response, the port
did not dispute that vio-
lations occurred — spe-
cifically, that soil nitrates
measured more than 30
pounds per acre in the
fourth- and fifth-foot levels
underground.
The port chalked up
these offenses a combina-
tion of less available acre-
age and unusually high
winter precipitation that
required more fertilizer
applications.
Because of those unex-
pected challenges, the port
claims DEQ authorized up
to 80 pounds per acre of soil
nitrates in the fourth- and
fifth-foot levels in 2019.
Only six of the 66 fields
cited by DEQ exceeded that
limit, according to the port.
Violations were “unin-
tentional, and beyond the
reasonable control of the
port,” the appeal states, and
“had no adverse effect on
groundwater nitrate levels.”
The port also denies it
violated its permit by fail-
ing to monitor nitrogen
uptake in crops, since there
are no standard methods
for such monitoring and
DEQ did not provide an
agency-approved method
until 2021.
Measuring nitrogen in
plant tissue is “neither an
accurate nor a useful mea-
sure of the amount of nitro-
gen removed from fields
by crops, and the infor-
mation does not measure
compliance with any per-
mit requirement or serve
any other purpose under the
permit,” the appeal states.
Groundwater
nitrates
are a serious concern in
the Lower Umatilla Basin,
which was designated a
Groundwater
Manage-
ment Area in 1990 to curb
contamination from non-
point sources like farms
and municipal wastewater
facilities.
Drinking
groundwa-
ter with elevated nitrates
can be harmful in infants,
causing a condition known
as methemoglobinemia, or
“Blue Baby Syndrome.”
The management area
encompasses parts of north-
ern Umatilla and Morrow
counties, including the cit-
ies of Hermiston, Echo,
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Stanfield, Umatilla, Board-
man and Irrigon, with a
combined population of
33,534.
Irrigated
agriculture
contributes most of the
leached nitrogen into the
groundwater in the area,
estimated at 70%. About
12% comes from confined
animal feeding operations,
such as dairies; 8% from
livestock pastures and 4.6%
from food processing land
application.
The port acknowledged
that most, but not all, of the
sites for wastewater appli-
cation are in the Lower
Umatilla Basin Groundwa-
ter Management Area.
EO Media Group, File
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality alleges the Port of Morrow has applied excessive amounts of nitrate-
containing water to some area farmland.
Chamber of
Commerce
PO Box 1 • 101 Olson Rd. • Boardman, OR 97818 • 541-481-3014
www.boardmanchamber.org • email: info@boardmanchamber.org
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